Month: July, 2014

Lovely ladies and gents, you will recall that a couple of weeks ago, I held a competition to win a copy of The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller. I am very proud and excited to announce that the winner is Lisa Bentley from Lisa Talks Books. I loved her comment about Anna Karenina that she was going to read it and finally ‘kick Tolstoy’s behind’. Plus, AK is a book which takes me back, way back, to my Warwick University days, specifically to my European Novel module in my 2nd year, when, shamefully, I read only the beginning and the end of AK, much like munching on a sandwich and discarding its contents.

Lisa, please send your address to amysmith500@me.com. And let me know how you get on with Anna Karenina!

Oh Bryony…….did you step into the Tardis or the Bill and Ted phonebox and take a trip back into my tiny university room, record the number of empty wine bottles and overflowing ashtrays? Go on, tell my 30 year old self: she doesn’t mind, sitting as she does in a tidy house with sensible furniture, credit card bills and Playdoh-covered cars.

Bryony Gordon comes from a privileged Chiswick family; nonetheless, there are times in The Wrong Knickers where this privilege seems aeons away. Quitting university and the grotty flat near Euston she inhabits, she moves into journalism seemingly effortlessly, landing a job on a national newspaper. That said, the job is distinctly unglamorous initially: indeed there is mention of donning fancy dress in the name of getting a story.

Outside of work, Bryony’s life is a riot of fags, booze, coke-laced nights out and unsuitable men. There is Lurpakman, there is Guitarman, there is the long-term boyfriend who moves to Edinburgh. There is Breastsman, there is Marriedman, and indeed there is the Knickersman of the title, perhaps the worst of the lot. You will cringe in recognition; you will positively NOT recollect in tranquility (sorry, Wordsworth).

However, Bryony’s colleagues soon realise that her hedonistic lifestyle is the great basis for a weekly column. And you know you’ve made it when you have a weekly column! Trouble is, one has to maintain one’s wild partying in order to have something to write about. It’s all getting a bit Sex and the City, isn’t it?

I loved, loved, loved The Wrong Knickers, but the hangovers, horrendous men and total lack of financial sense made me want to tell at my younger self. Where are these people who want to be 20 again? I’d rather work and nurture: you can keep your boozing and bad clubs, thanks!

That said, what a fantastic book! Think Girls meets Withnail & I. Please, please, read it (preferably with a gin and tonic, and a Marlboro Red).

Evening chaps. Regular readers of this blog will know that I reviewed Andy Miller’s fabulous tale about making the effort to, well, read more, The Year of Reading Dangerously, last month. What I’m offering you tonight is the chance to win a copy of the book. All you have to do is one of two things:

1) Post a comment below telling me which book you will read by the end of 2014 and why;